Thursday, March 26, 2015

Benjamin Netanyahu's victory in the Israeli election last Tuesday, while impressive only in the sense that it was an upset to Isaac Herzog's Zionist Union, has now done almost irrepairable damage to Israel's standing in the world, especially with it's only true ally/friend, the United States of America.

I'll be very frank, this is not the first time we've seen a US President say that they're going to be reassessing relations between the United States and Israel. Nor is this the first time it's happened in March. In fact, it's the second. The first was in 1975, when Gerald Ford was President.

The relationship between Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu has become so toxic that it's gotten to the point that we no longer trust the Israelis, at least not for the moment. Additionally, Netanyahu's damage has been so extensive to the point that he almost fully inserted himself into the presidential election back in 2012.

However, if that's not enough to turn some heads, he decided to launch a racist diatribe to get people to vote. This is crazy and not how we Jews are taught to treat others. Even as Netanyahu walks back the previous campaign rhetoric, the damage is already done to any credibility for Israel as a full-fledged negotiating partner for Mideast Peace, specifically on the Palestinian sovereignty campaign. Israel, under Likud's leadership, has turned into an aggressor power seeking to engage in ethnic cleansing & genocide.

In addition, think for a minute that he had the Mossad inform Congressional Republicans on the status of the negotiations with Iran in a coordinated effort to completely destroy them. It's as if Israel's far-right controls our nation's foreign policy and can violate our sovereignty with impugnity.

Understand that with Netanyahu as Israel's Prime Minister, it's a matter of when WWIII happens.

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Okay, the simple explanation I can give you about the title is that in both America and Israel there's more craziness coming out of the +GOP and +Likudniks than that of Russia and Iran combined. This isn't to dismiss the hardened attempts by Vladimir Putin to rebuild the Soviet Union in more ways than we can imagine, which one can call insane, but that's not the point. The point is that the globalizing of the far-right here in America would put the hardliners elsewhere to shame, even Putin himself. How? Simple, think of all the stunts the Republicans in Congress have pulled to undermine +Barack Obama, particularly with regards to Iran.

I'm not going to say that Iran did anything crazy, and so far they're not going to bother for the sole reason that their economy is crippled very badly from the comprehensive sanctions regime imposed backed in 2010. They'd like these sanctions lifted so they can regrow their economy and so far have been willing to allow intrusive inspections from the IAEA to verify their claims that they're not seeking to build a nuclear bomb. In addition, it's to put the entire international community at ease so they can pursue their right to generate peaceful nuclear electricity and nuclear isotopes for medicinal purposes.

For the Republicans, their insanity is easy enough to explain. They're unwilling to allow anything to happen with Iran unless it's a war with that nation, a war with the goal of regime change. Let me be very clear, we have no leverage in terms of using force on Iran, our military is exhausted from fighting long wars in Afghanistan (13 years) and Iraq (8 years). We don't have the capacity to execute a war, much to the GOP's disdain. The only way to resolve the crisis over Iran's lack of disclosures for its nuclear program is by talking to them.

Which leads me to my next point about the GOP: real cute in penning that op-ed (I'm calling on you Tom Cotton) signed by 47 of the 54 members of the +Senate GOP. There's nothing in terms of the history of the United States Senate, as the +CBS Evening News reported Joe Biden saying in a strongly worded statement. Enclosed is the video, from that segment, via +YouTube. It's easy to understand why +The White House was so livid when they learned about this. However, I'm not so upset by the fact that Cotton even penned that letter, as to do something stupid like that is absolutely expected by a freshman politician. What's pissed me off more than anything is the fact that Mitch McConnell, the Republicans' leader in the Senate signed the letter as well as other senior Republicans like Chuck Grassley and +Senator John McCain, who should have known better than to sign that letter undermining the White House during a time of critical negotiations with Iran. It's easy to see why President Obama and Vice President Biden are livid about this act, in addition to Secretary John Kerry.

This is where Likud (the party of the +Prime Minister of Israel - Benjamin Netanyahu) comes into play. Their playbook is the same as the Republicans', fear-monger and war-monger. To both, only war can resolve this crisis. This is also Likud's stance towards the Palestinians, only force is the means of solving the crisis of their attempts to take Israeli land for a state of their own and their support for Hamas and other "terrorist" networks. And by "their", he means all the Palestinians, which is completely bogus. However, that's not what has me irked about Likud.

Apparently the fear-mongering worked for Likud, who managed to pull of an upset victory in Tuesday's election.

Friday, March 13, 2015

Somehow the Republicans' lust for war and especially so in the Mideast says a lot about where their priorities lay. I'm not surprised by the treasonous letter sent by 47 of the 54 Senate Republicans, as they'll do anything to undermine the President. Moreover, it's also not surprising that Republicans in Congress are just not willing to resolve the crisis diplomatically as it takes too long, while war resolves the crisis with Iran quickly and with the added effect of giving them pleasure in seeing innocents die while they profit off their deaths. This may be 1 reason they're colluding with Benjamin Netanyahu to undermine the intense negotiations with Iran.

Also, this plays to the neocons very closely. It's also showing us that they're not done yet, even though George W. Bush is no longer in the Presidency. They're still at work aiming America's guns at Iran, looking to manufacture a crisis to take back the Presidency and fully execute a war alongside Israel. In the end, I'm unsurprised by the amount of wrangling going on with groups like AIPAC, in addition to Congressional Republicans and the Israeli embassy in Washington. It shows the true interconnectedness between the American and Israeli far-right, and the dangerous game of chess they're playing.

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

I don't know how to express my undying fury with +John Boehner and Benjamin Netanyahu in terms of a beginning. I'll just say this as I see it. Today is a sad day for everyone who worships within the Jewish faith. Netanyahu's constant sabre rattling is going to start WW III (I remember mentioning this in an earlier post) and it's becoming more apparent that he's itching to start it. I know the reason, it's to distract the world away from the crumbling peace process and from continued calls for the genocide of the Palestinians.

In terms of Boehner, that's also simple. It's to get another +GOP President in +The White House and to instill the permanent reign of the far-right wing. And we thought George W. Bush would be the last of these ultra-radicalized, war-mongering conservatives. Nope, not even close. This next crop of Republican Presidential candidates will be even more reactionary than Bush, Jr. ever was. They will make him seem left-wing/center-left and/or centrist in comparison.

Additionally, there's a second reason, which is to undermine +Barack Obama's authority as President of the United States. If anything, it's Boehner's means of throwing a tantrum since Obama's not caving, at all. For Boehner, this would be the best day in his life if he successfully helps Netanyahu undermine and potentially kill off the negotiations to rein in Iran's nuclear program.

I find that Bibi has a problem with honesty, as he helped to lie us into Iraq back in 2002, just like he's trying to do now with Iran in 2015.